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Congressperson Joe ‘You Lie’ Wilson was hard hit this week while the POTUS effectively got away with snubbing women and undocumented immigrants in his health care speech. But even after his re-election opponent, Rob Miller, raised a million due to the outcry and an apology to President Obama, Wilson seems to have won. Today, Democrats Max Baucus and Kent Conrad delivered a more anti-immigrant bill health care bill on a silver platter with costly eligibility verification that threatens to exclude more than just undocumented immigrants. Which U.S. citizens cannot provide proper government documentation? The first people to be affected by verification procedures is the Trans community. Oppressing against a particular group is often the slippery slope for oppression against other groups. John Aravosis at America Blog cannot fathom why Democrats are on the defensive. He writes: Why would anyone think that Wilson, or any of the extremists he represents, will support Baucus and Conrad’s plan, regardless of the changes? […]Wilson is holding firm. Perhaps Conrad and Baucus can delete women from the bill too, or gays, or blacks. That might finally get Wilson on board.
And Aravosis is right. Why is the Democrat party pandering to right-wing paranoia in the name of facts? Is ceding so much ground to nativists in the health care debate really the way forward? Will they also write the bill for immigration reform? If you are still betting on Democrats like Senator Schumer (D-NY) to be a champion of the cause, expect a lot of anti-immigrant rhetoric and measures. After all, he has adopted the ugly discourse of the extreme right and is busy drawing a framework of eligibility verification using biometric tools complete with iris-scanning and finger-printing. I don't know about promigrant, anti-immigrant groups or even the American people but the winner here is certainly the company who gets the contract for this multi-billion dollar opportunity.
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